Small groups of objects are often used as visual aids in teaching basic mathematical skills. For example, five apples can be employed to teach a child to count to five. Alternatively, the same five apples can be separated into two or more groups that can be recombined in various ways to practice addition. Of course, subtraction can be practiced by removing any number of the original group of five apples and, then, counting the remainder.
Teaching aids have been developed that secure a group of like objects together in a manner that prevents them from becoming lost or moving about in a confusing way during their use. Generally speaking, these teaching aids place a number of slidable beads on one or more rods. Adjacent the rods is often positioned a sequence of numbers that helps in counting the beads and in working out mathematical problems posed by a teacher.
Mathematics skills, for better or worse, are developed in individualized ways. Some students prefer to count objects arranged horizontally, as would be found in a typical teaching aid, from right to left while others like to count from left to right. Also, some students can handle large sets of objects from the start whereas others need to work their way up from small sets. No counting method has a particular advantage over the other. However, an ingrained, counting preference can make the use of some teaching aids impractical and detrimental for some students. Unfortunately, it is difficult to discern which students will have a tough time with a particular teaching aid prior to its use.